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Media Discourses on the World Social Forums:Towards Comparative Analyses 1

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Media Discourses on the World Social Forums:Towards Comparative Analyses 1 Media discourses on the World Social Forums Media discourses on the World Social Forums:Towards comparative analyses 1 Jan Ekecrantz 2* The reflections to be presented in this and a parallel article by Maia and Castro are based on ongoing studies of Brazilian, Swedish and Russian and Chinese media materials dealing with the World Social Forums (WSF) in 2001-2004. The overriding question in this paper concerns the ways mainstream media of very different societies have re-constructed the global and local issues addressed by the Forums. Of the four market-oriented economies, Communist China and Post-Socialist Russia stand out as being almost silent about the WSF, favouring economic globalization - seemingly at odds with cultural globalization. In Brazil and Sweden the dominant media harbour contradictory discourses reflecting different political positions visavi the WSF. World Social Forums – dominant media – cultural globalization As reflexões aqui presentes, assim como o artigo de Maia e Castro publicado nesta revista, encontram-se baseados em uma investigação em curso sobre o material divulgado pela mídia brasileira, sueca, russa e chinesa sobre as edições do Fórum Social Mundial (FSM) de 2001 a 2004. Este artigo explora, como questão principal, os modos pelos quais a chamada grande mídia de sociedades bastante diferentes reconstruíram os tópicos locais e globais suscitados pelos Fóruns. Das quatro economias orientadas pelo mercado, a China comunista e a Rússia pós- socialista mantêm um silêncio quase completo sobre o FSM, favorecendo a globalização econômica, e, aparentemente, afastando-se da globalização cultural. No Brasil e na Suécia, a mídia dominante encampa discursos contraditórios refletindo posições políticas diferentes sobre o FSM. Fórum Social Mundial – mídia dominante – globalização cultural * Professor and chair, Media and Communication Studies. Department of Journalism, Media and Communication Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden. ([email protected]) Contemporanea, vol. 2, no 2 p 117-138 Dez 2004 117 Les réflexions qui sont présentées ici et dans l’article parallèle de Maia et Castro sont basées sur des études des matériaux issus des médias brésiliens, suédois, russes et chinois concernant les Forums Sociaux Mondiaux (WSF) dans la période de 2001 à 2004. La question du dépassement dans cet article concerne les manières dont les médias de masse traditionnels des différentes sociétés reconstruisent les questions globales et locales abordées dans les forums. Des quatre économies orientées vers le marché, la Chine communiste et la Russie P ost-socialiste se tiennent comme les plus silencieuses au sujet du WSF, favorisant la globalisation économique - apparemment en désaccord avec la globalisation culturelle. Au Brésil et en Suède, les médias dominants tiennent des discours contradictoires qui est un reflet des différentes positions sur les WSF. Forums Sociaux du Mondiaux - médias dominants - globalisation culturelle Las reflexiones a ser presentadas en este artículo y en otro paralelo de Maia y Castro están basadas en estudios en curso sobre materiales mediáticos de Brasil, Suecia y Rusia y China que tienen relación con los Foros Sociales Mundiales (FSM) de 2001-2004. La pregunta dominante en este artículo tiene que ver con los modos en los que los medios principales de sociedades muy diferentes han reconstruído los asuntos globales y locales tratados por los Foros. De las cuatro economías orientadas por el mercado, la China comunista y la Rusia pos-socialista se destacaan como permaneciendo en silencio con respecto al FSM, por favorecer la globalización económica. – aparentemente en desacuerdo con la globalización cultural. En Brasil y Suecia los medios dominantes albergan discursos contradictorios que reflejan diferentes posiciones políticas con respecto a FSM. Foros Sociales Mundiales – medios dominantes – globalización cultural Media discourses on the World Social Forums Background The World Social Forum and the media representations of it highlight several phenomena related to transforming power structures in a globalized world, largely driven by media, old and new. It raises questions about the possibilities for world-wide dominance and resistance, the relationship between media and political systems, the changing foundations for political action and participation, media and social movements, re-alignments of power in a so-called deterritorialized world, etc. At the same time it also strongly problematizes nation-founded approaches in media studies and political science alike. All this makes it reasonable to believe that the WSF can serve as a litmus test of media and society relations under widely different national conditions. In this paper we can only give a provisional outline. When discussing the WSF I take it in the broadest sense, as something including not only the events that have occurred at four times in two different places, Porto Alegre and Mumbai over the years 2001-2004, but all the mobilization, action and counter-action taken during and between these events, and, in the context of this paper, the representation of the WSF phenomenon in different types of media world-wide. The meaning and future of all these movements gathering under the WSF umbrella is of course highly dependent on the ways it is handled by media actors, the latter also being part of the problems addressed by the Forums 3. The media may by all probability be an evermore significant arena for conflicts in the “post-political”, “post-national” world – and not only an arena, but forceful actors in them-selves, serving their own commercial and ideological interests and in that also changing the conditions for and forms of global and local conflicts. It is in the nature of things that social movements, new and old, take a critical stance against contemporary ideological apparatuses. It is equally logical that those media which serve as carriers of dominant ideologies tend to play down this side of social criticism – not accepting being portrayed as political actors or just servants to governments or other establishments. Contemporanea, vol. 2, no 2 p 117-138 Dez 2004 119 Jan Ekecrantz The WSF is sometimes described as an anti-globalization coalition, sometimes as a movement for “globalization from below”, then compared to the Davos meeting, representing “globalization from above”. This is not too farfetched since it all started out as an anti-Davos meeting. Wallerstein describes it as “a loose coalition of transnational, national, and local movements, with multiple priorities, who are united primarily in their opposition to the neo-liberal world order” (Wallerstein, 2002). This is bound to evoke very different responses in different parts of the world and in different types of media. One dimension in this is the sheer amount of coverage. Another is the relative focus on the WSF and the World Economic Forum (WEF) respectively. When it comes to the content of reporting we are interested, inter alia , in concepts of democracy, techniques of Othering, the use of metaphors and visual elements and the ways all this add up to a limited number of dominant themes. The choice of Brazil, Sweden, Russia and China follows ‘the largest differences’ approach within comparative studies, most likely to yield significant differences in terms of ideological and cultural responses – but because of what differences? There are huge differences, of course, between these countries as exponents of different political and economic systems, but the journalistic representations of the WSF annual events may also differ because of the different positions in the global system and their coming on very different roads into late modernity. One path of political democratization has been followed by a number of Latin American countries, starting in colonial and dictatorial or authoritarian pasts, variously reflected in today’s media. Brazil is our chosen case. As with Russia this is back-grounded in the earlier study mentioned above. Sweden differs from the other three, not only in size, but also because of the relative social and political stability of this country. It is a country without an authoritarian past in the modern era, but with declining participation in the Swedish and European parliamentary elections and 120 Contemporanea. Revista de Comunicação e Cultura Journal of Communication and Culture Media discourses on the World Social Forums corporativistic tendencies, often mentioned in international comparisons, also in the media structure. Russia of the last decade and a half has been termed “transitional”, which implies some kind of in-between position – and also a direction. Our preferred term, “transformational”, signifies less confidence about that direction. When it comes to democratic developments we get contradictory signals, not least when it comes to the media system. China, the Communist one-party state, which recently became a member of the WTO, has a media system which, still, is largely controlled by the CCP. Cultural globalization is not yet on the official agenda, in strong contrast to economic globalization. It is Communism the Chinese way, also in the field of the media. To put etiquettes on these countries, such as post-authoritarian, post- communist or post-socialist, corporativistic capitalism and market-oriented communism seems to be a futile exercise. As we shall see, these labels are not very good predictors of media output, at least not as seen from the limited perspective of this provisional comparative study. Because of
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